City Council Is In Mood For Election

January 13, 1995|By Robert Davis, Tribune Staff Writer.

The Chicago City Council, in its first meeting of the new year, engaged in some pre-election posturing Thursday, as Mayor Richard Daley and various aldermen introduced measures ranging in scope from bullets to basement businesses to bikini car washes.

With the Feb. 28 election less than two months away, and only one more regularly scheduled council meeting on tap before that date, it is unlikely many of the measures will be passed before Election Day.

Or ever, for that matter, since good public relations, not passage, is often the point of pre-election legislative proposals.

For example, Daley introduced an ordinance amendment that would ban the sale of the highly publicized fragmenting and metal-piercing bullets, even though an ordinance approved last September banned the sale of any kind of handgun ammunition.

He also introduced an ordinance to regulate businesses often operated from private homes, such as consulting work, computer-related services, and clerical work. That proposal, which was sent to the Zoning Committee for study, has been under consideration for several months by Daley aides.

It would bar those working out of their own homes from hiring employees who do not live in the home. They would also be barred from remodeling the houses to accommodate a business, such as displaying external signs, and could only receive a maximum of 10 clients a day in home offices limited to no more than 300 square feet in size.

Daley's plan calls for such businesses to obtain a "home occupation license" for an estimated annual fee of $125.

Ald. Carole Bialczak (30th), who is locked in a heated re-election contest with Ald. Michael Wojcik (35th) because new ward boundaries placed them in the same ward, introduced an ordinance that would require businesses that feature employees wearing a "bathing suit, bikini, halter top or G-string" to obtain an amusement license, no matter what kind of services they provide.

Bialczak's proposal was prompted by the threat of a "bikini car wash," featuring scantily clad car washers, opening at 4118 N. Pulaski Rd. City officials stopped the planned Jan. 1 opening on grounds it violated various exisiting city zoning and licensing laws.

Politicking surfaced during the council session over a normally routine matter-the annual approval of the sale of general obligation bonds to finance routine city operations until property tax revenue is collected.

Led by Ald. John Steele (6th), who charged that African-American law firms and bond underwriting companies were not getting their share of the legal fees the city pays in such bond sales, black and Hispanic aldermen joined to vote against the measure. However, the current $300 million bond sale was approved by a 26-19 margin.